Red Velvet Hot Cross Buns for our Vintage Recipe Swap

Hi folks.

Yup, I did that.

I had planned something else.

Then saw it all over facebook and had to make a change of plan STAT.

So out of the chaos comes this little beauty.

You are so welcome!

I have to say I just love our Vintage Recipe Swap. Every month a group of us take an old, vintage recipe and turn it into something else. When Christianna from Burwell General Store sent us the challenge this month I laughed out loud. I had literally just made a version of it days before. She sent us a recipe for Ham Snails. I had just made Pizza Wheels which was essentially the same thing. I'll share that Pizza Wheels recipe with you next week. In the meantime I give you the recipe for the original Ham Snails thanks to Christianna.

Such a cool recipe. And the name just makes me giggle every time. I had gone around and around how to adapt it. The obvious choice was to use the pizza wheels I had already made. That would suck the fun out of the experience though. So I canned that idea and moved on. I thought about doing other pizza creations as that is where my mind inevitably goes with recipes. There was a promise not to do pizza again though, so I canned that idea too. Then I thought perhaps a pie, but it was still coming off too much like pizza in my brain. Axed again. So I did a 180 and started to think about desserts. I had wanted to make a spin on cinnamon buns but a wonderfully talented fellow blogger posted her beauties that day and it's just not me to post something out of the box at the same time someone else does. So once I saw her tasty treat I axed that idea too. The downside is I had already started the dough and did not want to waste it. So cinnamon buns turned into hot cross buns. Perfect for Easter and has a nice little twist to it being red velvet.

These Red Velvet Hot Cross Buns rock. I mean they really are yummy. I only wish I had stuffed them with some white chocolate chips. For some reason I did not have white chocolate on hand. So I made a plain version and will probably make these again with some added fun inside. White chocolate would be lovely. Milk chocolate would be lovely. Dark chocolate would be lovely. See, my mind either goes to pizza or chocolate. It's how this chick rolls. I made my dough with my bread machine so if you don't have a bread machine you could use a mixer with dough hook attachment, or a food processor. Just use quick rise instead of bread machine yeast. Or go to The Pioneer Woman's site for a good old fashioned Hot Cross Buns recipe and then just add chocolate and red food colouring to hers. Easy peasy.

Print Pin

5 from 3 votes

Author Cravings of a Lunatic

Ingredients

• Recipe for the dough:
• 1-⅓ cup milk
• 1 egg beaten
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup vanilla sugar regular sugar is fine too
• 1 teaspoon vanilla salt regular salt is fine too
• 3-½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 ounces bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate grated finely
• 4 drops liquid red food colouring
• 2 drops gel red food colouring I realize this is overkill but I wanted red
• 1-½ teaspoon bread machine yeast
• Recipe for the wash:
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon of water or milk
• Recipe for frosting:
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• ½ package of cream cheese so about 4 or so ounces, softened
• 2 tablespoons milk more if needed

Instructions

• Place all the ingredients in order into your baking pan.
• Place your baking pan in the chamber.
• Turn machine on dough and let the magic happen.
• Once it's done, remove and transfer into a glass bowl. I like to spray my bowl with non-stick spray first just to be safe.
• Cover with a tea towel or parchment or tinfoil. Let sit out for about 30 or so minutes.
• Now uncover the bowl and line a cookie sheet with parchment.
• Take your dough and roll pieces about the size of a golf ball. Then place them on the cookie sheet.
• Now I like to whack them a little bit with my hand to press them down a little bit. Make sure you make that karate chop noise or it's not done right.
• Now cover them with parchment or a tea towel or both. Or tinfoil. Whatever floats your boat. Now let them sit out for a bit in a warm spot. Don't have a warm spot, then set them on a heating pad turned on low. It's a perfect proofing trick. Let them sit out for about 30 to 60 minutes.
• Now you have to decide if you want to cut little crosses in them or not. If you do now is the time to do it. You just make a slit in them with a sharp knife. If not just leave them and move to the next step.
• Now you make your wash to brush over the rolls.
• Just whisk together your egg white and some water or milk. Brush over each bun.
• Place the buns in a 375 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.
• Once they are cool you can frost them.
• Take your frosting ingredients and place them in your mixer. Turn on slow to start so you don't end up with icing sugar all over your walls. As it starts to mix up a bit you can speed it up. You want to mix it well until it's nice and thick and creamy. Feel free to add more milk if needed.
• Once it's mixed you can either put it on with a spoon or knife. Or put your frosting into a piping bag and do it less messy like. To each their own. I've done it both ways. Depends how hungry I am.
• Now serve with a smile.

Notes

I would highly suggest you frost one or two right after they come out of the oven just for fun and to keep you from crossing over to the dark side while waiting for the others to cool. I just dunked mine right in the bowl of frosting. It got all crazy up here in the Bee household that day. I may have had frosting up to my elbows at some point.

I sure hope you all enjoyed this one. I love anything red velvet so it's always a pleasure to share my obsession with others. These could be made with pink for easter which would be wicked cute. You could slip easter candy inside the buns instead of chocolate or raisins.

Make sure you stop by the other swappers and check out what they made. It's a great group of people who belong to the group and I am honoured to be among these folks.

Tomorrow brings another edition of Burning Down the Kitchen. Look forward to sharing that with you. Then Thursday I have a wonderful Easter treat for you. I cannot believe it's almost Easter and I have not posted any yummy goodies for everyone yet.

Have a great day everyone. See you soon.

Shared on Katherine Martinelli's Easter Blog Hop!

Toodles and smoochies! xx